That has only been made worse with Nortel pensioners crying foul that professional advisors (mainly lawyers) have run up bills totaling $1.3-billion as they divide up the $8-billion left behind by the company’s bankruptcy, and last year an intemperate lawyer with the world’s largest law firm, DLA Piper, was caught crowing on email that multiple lawyers were working on one client file: “in standard ‘churn that bill, baby’ mode.”

Can the culture clash — and affordability gap — between entrepreneurs and lawyers be overcome? The law firm of Fasken Martineau is betting on it. Two years ago, the firm’s Toronto office named entrepreneur and angel investor Jeff Dennis what was probably Canada’s first “entrepreneur in residence” at a legal firm. His job: build bridges into the local entrepreneur community — especially to early-stage tech companies — and figure out how Faskens lawyers can better serve cash-starved startups.

You might say Dennis’s whole life led to this job. A longtime entrepreneur, he has both an MBA and a law degree, and has run his family’s business and his own startups in finance, real estate and solar energy. He’s also an angel investor and co-author of a 2002 book summing up his adventures in business, Lessons from the Edge.

On a strict cost-benefit basis, there’s been no official calculation yet to prove Dennis’s efforts are making money. But his appointment has been a boon for both the firm and many new companies. Faskens wins by meeting lots of prospects through the events it now hosts or sponsors, such as the TiEQuest business plan competition or the Tiger 21 peer group for high-net-worth investors. Business owners win through the consultations and creative solutions Dennis provides, or through Faskens’ new (and heavily discounted) “Startup Program.” It allows startups to affordably solve common legal challenges, such as constitutional documents and trademark registrations, while getting to know the firm and many of its specialists.

The entrepreneur-in-residence job came at the right time for Dennis. Having had his fill of running companies, he spent the past few years advising entrepreneurs. But he found it lonely work: “I missed people, interaction, whiteboards and flip charts.” Being at Faskens offers all that and more: “This has given me a lot of resources I wouldn’t have otherwise had. It extends what I can do to help entrepreneurs.”

A law-school friend and Faskens partner, Craig Brown, told Dennis, the firm was looking for a champion to reach out to innovative small businesses. “I put together a little business plan for the powers that be,” Dennis says, “and they agreed to give it a shot.” Like a good startup entrepreneur, he designed a compensation plan that would give him a minimum base salary, but upside potential through performance-based incentives: “I wanted to do it right, not fast.”

Dennis has a twofold mandate: to help entrepreneurs take advantage of legal services in more cost-effective ways, and help lawyers better understand small-business clients. An example: recently a client came to Faskens for help setting up a new venture fund. The firm estimated the legal spadework at $200,000. For a startup that wasn’t sure its strategy would pan out, Dennis realized that investment was out of the question. “We came up with a solution that let them do it for $15,000.” That helped the client create a “minimum viable product” to test its theories before going all in.

Dennis contends there’s much more room for innovation and customization in legal services. “Most legal advice is pretty standardized: term sheets and partnership agreements,” he says. “The value I add is understanding business. I know what our clients are going through, because I’ve lived that life for 25 years.”

As an advocate for small business inside a huge law firm, he enjoys helping entrepreneurs access Faskens’ “bench strength.” “As a large law firm we have specializations that run really deep. We’re building a team that can help small companies, whether they’re into biotech, medical devices, Bitcoin, cleantech or public-private partnerships.”

Such depth doesn’t come cheap, but Dennis hopes to convince his colleagues that investing in early-stage relationships will pay off. “My job is to build a clientele where many of them will hit it out of the park.”

A Fasken M&A team recently helped one young company pull off an ambitious acquisition. “We invested our time and energy and advice, and built some loyalty,” Dennis says. But the firm got to know its client and has faith in its future, “so we’re confident that we’ll reap that benefit as we go forward.”

The most tangible product of Dennis’s tenure is Faskens’ Startup Program, now offered by its Toronto and Montreal offices. For about $2,000 a year, companies get help with basic legal issues — including some they don’t even know they have, such as who really owns your company’s IP? — and two hours a month of face-to-face consultation, with either Dennis or another Faskens lawyer. Dennis says the program, just over a year old, has attracted more than 50 participants.

Brown, who championed Dennis’s appointment, says he’s pleased with the way the program is working. He says more Faskens lawyers are leaving their offices to meet these new entrepreneurs, and that lowly fourth-year lawyers, who never get near the clients on big accounts, can get face-to-face client experience and real business problems to solve. He admits some old-school partners at Faskens still think “fishing around here is a waste of time.” But in the legal profession, he notes, “everyone’s scrambling for new business today. And this is a great place to find new business.”

]]>http://business.financialpost.com/entrepreneur/can-the-culture-clash-and-affordability-gap-between-entrepreneurs-and-lawyers-be-overcome/feed0rickspenceLawyers in underwear and free ice cream; it’s the little things…http://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/lawyers-in-underwear-and-free-ice-cream-its-the-little-things
http://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/lawyers-in-underwear-and-free-ice-cream-its-the-little-things#respondFri, 27 Dec 2013 18:37:18 +0000http://business.financialpost.com/?p=399678Roll on Friday has asked for last calls for its annual Aussie Law firm of the Year survey.

The questionnaire is exceedingly thorough in its approach to determining which firm would win the coveted title, asking questions such as, “How good are the salaries at your firm?”; “How do you rate the quality of the firm’s biscuits?”; “How do you rate the firm’s toilets?”; and “How do you rate the firms’ commitment to diversity?” among others.

To date Lavan Legal seems to have an early lock on the title as one of its team reports that “‘partners walk around in underwear’ to collect money for charity – as one lawyer puts it ridiculing themselves shamelessly providing ‘great free entertainment'”.

While unhappiness seems to be percolating through newly merged KWM SJ Berwin where one lawyer commented “it ‘feels like a sinking ship – partners jumping every week'”.

At Gadens lawyers seem to be starving as one wrote, “I would kill for biscuits to be available some times”. Perhaps she should move to Mills Oakley where “when the temperature outside reaches 40 degrees C, the admin team brings around ice creams for everybody. Yum yum…”

Who says lawyers only care about the money?

]]>http://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/lawyers-in-underwear-and-free-ice-cream-its-the-little-things/feed0office-underwearMitch KowalskiU.S. lawyer suspended over lack of email addresshttp://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/u-s-lawyer-suspended-over-lack-of-email-address
http://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/u-s-lawyer-suspended-over-lack-of-email-address#respondFri, 25 Oct 2013 14:19:54 +0000http://business.financialpost.com/?p=380050The Supreme Court of South Carolina suspended retired lawyer Cynthia Collie earlier this month for failing to have a valid email address on record with the regulator.

The court said Ms. Collie’s lack of an email account interfered with the local regulator’s ability to communicate with her.

In an age where email addresses are de rigure, Ms. Collie chose not to have one. She argued that since she was retired and had no clients she did not require an email address. What’s more, her office does not have access to the internet. It is unclear why she has an office if she is not practicing.

After a flurry of letters, and then a flurry of court motions and submissions filed by Ms. Collie the Supreme Court determined that although Ms. Collie considered “herself retired from the practice of law since she has not represented clients in many years, she is nevertheless classified as a regular member of the South Carolina Bar and, therefore, pursuant to Rule 410(g), SCACR, required to provide a valid email address. Even if she were eligible to elect to be a retired member of the Bar, she would still be required to maintain an email address pursuant to Rule 410(g), SCACR . . . . [therefore Ms.Collie]’s license to practice law in this state is suspended until further order of the Court.”

Welcome to the theatre of the absurd where lawyers spend more time fighting for the right to not have an email address, than the time it would take to set up an email address. And lawyers wonder why the public has such low regard for people in our profession.

]]>http://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/u-s-lawyer-suspended-over-lack-of-email-address/feed0computer-emailMitch KowalskilawTechCamp seeks to bring lawyers into the 21st Centuryhttp://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/lawtechcamp-seeks-to-bring-lawyers-into-the-21st-century
http://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/lawtechcamp-seeks-to-bring-lawyers-into-the-21st-century#respondFri, 31 May 2013 12:05:25 +0000http://business.financialpost.com/?p=328298Technological and business innovations are pushing industries worldwide to become more efficient and effective – yet the legal industry lags far behind. The third annual lawTechCamp will bring together leaders in both the legal and technology industries to address law failure to move into the 21st century. The conference examines the intersection between law and technology and provides a space where conversations around their intersection can take place.

lawTechCamp will take place on June 8th in Toronto at BNOTIONS office at Front and Jarvis. The unconference will bring together thought leaders from the United States and Canada for a half-day forum on in the intersection of law and technology. Guests will have the opportunity to hear from established industry leaders from CALI to LegalZoom, recent success stories like Clio and Mootus, and the next generation of startups that are beginning to gain traction in the marketplace.

lawTechCamp will extend the conversation beyond the scope of the unconference by partnering with digital media experts thirdocean to create a series of interviews to post online.

Lawyers will be able to earn 3.25 CPD hours while challenging the underlying assumptions of how technology can shape the practice of law.

Topics for discussion will be as diverse as how technology can make a law practice more efficient and effective, to how a Toronto startup is bringing the lessons learned from crowdsourcing to the world of litigation funding.

This year’s half-day lawTechCamp will be punchier, more compact and personal. The more intimate setting will allow guests and presenters to network more effectively, and also for panels to be more evenly balanced between audience and presenter. As a result of LawTechCamp’s focus on engaging with its guests, registration is limited and is expected to fill very quickly. Tickets are currently on sale for $25.00 and are expected to sell out. To reserve your spot at the conference, visit lawtechcamp.com.

]]>http://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/lawtechcamp-seeks-to-bring-lawyers-into-the-21st-century/feed0Mitch KowalskiFlorida lawyer vows to bring a second Civil Warhttp://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/florida-lawyer-vows-to-bring-a-second-civil-war
http://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/florida-lawyer-vows-to-bring-a-second-civil-war#respondFri, 26 Apr 2013 14:03:51 +0000http://business.financialpost.com/?p=313718On the heels of a number of disturbing tweets allegedly emanating from Toronto criminal lawyer David DaSilva comes a puzzling and highly disturbing email from a young Florida lawyer who changed his name to Augustus Sol Invictus and opened up his own firm, Imperium Law.

He suddenly quit earlier this week sending an email to various colleagues in which, according to RollonFriday, he “explains that he is a genius who dresses better than anyone else… boasts that he has ‘multiple computers & a personal library’ and is ‘God’s gift to humankind where the English language is concerned’.”

He has also come to the conclusion that “lawyers are ‘nothing more than parasites’ who ‘feed off others like worms’. Inviting his peers to ‘look upon your lives and repent’, Invictus renounces his law degree, his firm, civilisation and even his poetry journal.”

Perhaps most chilling of all, the (former?) lawyer vows he has plans to start a civil war in the U.S. In his own word: “I have prophesied for years that I was born for a Great War; that if I did not witness the coming of the Second American Civil War I would begin it myself. Mark well: That day is fast coming upon you. On the New Moon of May, I shall disappear into the Wilderness. I will return bearing Revolution, or I will not return at all.”

Is this yet another cry for help in a profession where depression is reportedly high? Or just one really stupid joke?

]]>http://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/florida-lawyer-vows-to-bring-a-second-civil-war/feed0Mitch KowalskiLawyer bills for time spent having sex with clienthttp://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/lawyer-bills-for-time-spent-having-sex-with-client
http://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/lawyer-bills-for-time-spent-having-sex-with-client#respondThu, 17 Jan 2013 19:48:04 +0000http://business.financialpost.com/?p=277496Lawyers have sometimes been known to “fudge” their time sheets in order to meet personal billing targets. But a Minnesota lawyer has taken time-sheet fraud to a whole new level.

Twincities.com reports that attorney Thomas P. Lowe was suspended for a year and three months for having an affair with a client and for billing her for time spent having sex with her.

According to the website, “Lowe billed the woman for legal services on the dates of their sexual encounters, coding the time as meetings or drafting memos.In March, after several arguments with the woman about the affair and his own marriage, Lowe said he was breaking things off. Two days later, he said he was withdrawing as her attorney.”

The client then tried to kill herself and the affair become public.

Apparently this is not the first time Mr. Lowe has mixed his personal and professional life. In 1997 he was placed on probation for, among other things, purchasing cocaine from a client.

]]>http://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/lawyer-bills-for-time-spent-having-sex-with-client/feed0sexMitch KowalskiWhat constitutes an Act of God?http://business.financialpost.com/entrepreneur/what-constitutes-an-act-of-god
http://business.financialpost.com/entrepreneur/what-constitutes-an-act-of-god#respondMon, 19 Mar 2012 13:43:38 +0000http://business.financialpost.com/?p=153102I’m not one for any of that highfalutin philosophizin’ — but I do think that Nietzsche was wrong on at least one thing. God isn’t dead, and I know so because His (or Her) name keeps popping up in a lot of contracts.

I have in mind something lawyers call force majeure. Our English common law tradition recognizes that sometimes things happen that make contracts impossible to complete. Most contracts will contain a “force majeure clause” that protects the parties if something happens that is beyond their control. In the event of a natural disaster or an “Act of God” the affected party can invoke the force majeure clause as a defence to any complaint about the non-performance.

This might sound rather sensible and reasonable, but I’m hearing from lawyers that negotiating and relying on force majeure clauses has become much trickier today that it was 20 years ago.

The language found in force majeure clauses used to be straightforward and predictable. The clause would name a series of dramatic events — wars, legal changes, labour unrest, damage to production facilities, as well as the phrase “Act of God,” a catch-all term that covered all types of natural disasters: tornadoes, earthquakes, forest fires, land slides, locust infestations, wild animals, and so on. Basically, if it’s mentioned or suggested in the Old Testament, force majeure can get you out of it.

[np-related]

Lawyers tell me that as life gets more complicated, more things seem to be cropping up that can frustrate contracts. Things such as technological glitches, road closures and construction delays spring to mind. If you can contemplate a risk that is beyond your control, you might as well toss it in the contract for certainty.

You must be careful about this, though. The more you load up a force majeure clause with specific risks, the more you can decrease your ability to rely on a catch-all phrase – such as “Act of God” – to capture an event that wasn’t included in your list. You see, the more comprehensive your list is, the greater the chance a judge might later find that any omission from that list was intentional.

You also need to be on the lookout for situations where a force majeure clause stops serving as protection against uncontrollable circumstances, and instead becomes a list of ready-made excuses that might absolve a company of errors in management.

“These clauses are not supposed to apply to normal business risks,” says Sharon Vogel, a construction lawyer in the Toronto office of national law firm Borden Ladner Gervais LLP.

“These clauses are supposed to be used as a shield, not a sword. Sometimes you see the parties trying to use the pointy end of the clause to avoid a risk that they had really bargained to accept.”

Some creative uses of force majeure have found their way into court, and judges haven’t liked what they’ve seen. A big one in recent years is the economy. Some businesses have tried to invoke force majeure clauses by arguing that market disruptions have changed business conditions in unforeseen or uncontrollable ways.

I have seen a case where the parties used a specific “economic clause” to suspend a contract due to a change in market conditions. If both parties are willing to write that into the bargain, that’s certainly their business. But I think to argue that economic conditions, such as commodity prices, should be subject to force majeure protection is a bit of a stretch.

We saw this in a 2011 British Columbia case called Domtar Inc. v. Univar Canada Ltd. Univar supplied Domtar with caustic soda. The global price of caustic soda rose so much in 2008 that Univar declared “force majeure/excused performance” on the existing supply contract and demanded Domtar pay a higher price. Domtar paid the higher price, but only under protest. It later sued Univar for the return of the overpayment. At trial, Madam Justice Barbara Fisher of the B.C. Superior Court of Justice, sided with Domtar.

She said it was “astonishing” that Univar tried to declare force majeure. “It is not to be resorted to where such an event makes performance of that party’s obligations ‘commercially impractical’ unless the parties to the contract have expressly agreed to such a term. There is no such express agreement in this case.”

Univar has filed an appeal.

So understand what a force majeure clause is. Know what it protects and what it doesn’t. And watch out for parties who are trying to use it for something it’s not designed to do. I may well be wrong, but I have a feeling when it comes to God, He (or She) is too busy dealing with those tornadoes and earthquakes to worry about the price of caustic soda.

Drew Hasselback, Legal Post editor, is a lawyer called to the Bar of Ontario. His Legal Tender column appears monthly in FP Entrepreneur. He can be reached at dhasselback@nationalpost.com

]]>http://business.financialpost.com/entrepreneur/what-constitutes-an-act-of-god/feed00319earthquakevonhasselbachNew legal business rises from the ashes of marriage breakdownhttp://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/new-legal-business-rises-from-the-ashes-of-marriage-breakdown
http://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/new-legal-business-rises-from-the-ashes-of-marriage-breakdown#respondFri, 24 Feb 2012 14:33:45 +0000http://business.financialpost.com/?p=145413Sometimes marriage breakdown can spawn not only a new romantic life, but also a new business life. Such is the case of Lawyerlocate.ca’s Natalie Waddell.

Waddell, a former business analyst with a number of dot.com companies before that bubble burst ten years ago, was frustrated with the process of finding a divorce lawyer. In her mind, there had to be a better way for the public to connect with the right lawyer.

Using her business background and computer skills, she created LawyerLocate.ca. Initially the website was a basic directory of lawyers, but it has now blossomed into a robust, constantly-improving website that allow clients and lawyers to better connect by practice area and location. The site allows for detailed bios and pictures of lawyers along with a 1-800 number for assistance.

Since starting in 2002, LawyerLocate.ca has processed over 94,000 referrals to lawyers across Canada. Currently the site processes about 300 referrals per week and had 1.2 million page views in 2011.

LawyerLocate.ca. has 350 active lawyer members, who can elect to pay on a month-to-month basis at $90.00 per month or obtain a yearly membership at $750.00.

As we have seen over the past few weeks, Canadian entrepreneurs continue to aggressively change the legal marketplace and Natalie is clearly one of the pioneers in this area.

Like I have said before, the legal world needs more Canada.

]]>http://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/new-legal-business-rises-from-the-ashes-of-marriage-breakdown/feed0Divorce conceptMitch KowalskiCanadian lawyer-entrepreneurs continue to create new productshttp://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/canadian-lawyer-entrepreneurs-continue-to-create-new-products
http://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/canadian-lawyer-entrepreneurs-continue-to-create-new-products#respondFri, 17 Feb 2012 18:40:31 +0000http://business.financialpost.com/?p=143647Last week we mentioned a new web service to calculate the amount of spousal and child support that may be payable in the event you decide to terminate your marriage.

With the Canadian market responding well to his offering, Carabash has now set his sights Down Under. “We’re currently working on expanding our Wills to Australia in the next few months – doing the research now. It’s interesting to note how similar their laws are to ours.”

Once again Canadian lawyer-entrepreneurs are making legal services more accessible to the public.

]]>http://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/canadian-lawyer-entrepreneurs-continue-to-create-new-products/feed0Mitch KowalskiNew EU process may allow lawyers to file complaints against clientshttp://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/new-eu-process-may-allow-lawyers-to-file-complaints-against-clients
http://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/new-eu-process-may-allow-lawyers-to-file-complaints-against-clients#respondFri, 27 Jan 2012 15:58:43 +0000http://business.financialpost.com/?p=136594In Canada, clients have always had the right to complain about their lawyers to the relevant law society. Now, the European Union is considering a law that will allow lawyers to file complaints about their clients.

Legal Futures reports that the EU’s proposed Alternative Dispute Resolution process also covers a new complaints process that would be wide enough to allow lawyers that are unhappy with their clients (or with the opposing lawyer’s client!) to file a complaint – what sanctions would be given for the client’s behaviour is unclear.